Companies, brands that thrilled Nigerians in the past

As Nigeria marks 57 years as a sovereign nation on October 1, Eric Dumo takes a look at some major brands that thrilled citizens around the time but are no more today

Mrs. Chibuzor Okonkwo was quite embarrassed when her grandchildren burst into laughter. Since travelling down from Abidjan in Ivory Coast where she had lived most of her youthful and adult life to visit her son, Michael, and his family in the Gbagada area of Lagos, the 70-year-old woman has not ceased to amuse the kids. Everything she does or says often leaves them laughing.

Born to parents in the business of buying and selling, Okonkwo and her siblings suddenly found themselves in Abidjan one day shortly after her 15th birthday. Being young traders, her parents – both natives of Nnewi in Anambra State, were constantly on the move, looking for new grounds to explore most of the time. That was around 1963 – three years after Nigeria attained independence as a sovereign country. There was renewed hope and optimism in the land after years of British colonial rule. But even with such enthusiasm, her parents decided that Abidjan, a city famed for its thriving trade and commerce sector in the West African sub-region, was going to be their next stop after previously ‘conquering’ places like Kano and Port-Harcourt in Rivers State before later moving to Lagos. On her visit back to the coastal city more than 40 years after the last stopover when an uncle died, the 70-year-old woman decided to relive childhood memories by seeing some of the places that made that period of her life special.

“Immediately I asked my son and his wife to take me to Kingsway Stores to see what the place looks like and probably buy a few things for the children, the entire room became filled with laughter,” the elderly woman who our correspondent came across at the Ikeja City Mall popularly known as Shoprite, said. “The children and even their mother couldn’t stop laughing at me because they probably had not heard of that name before. Being out of Nigeria and Lagos for so long, I never knew Kingsway Stores was no more. I almost cried when my son confirmed to me that the place had closed down a long time ago.

“I had planned to see all those beautiful places we used to go to as young boys and girls growing up in Lagos when I was coming for this visit. As kids living with our parents at Ebute Metta, Kingsway Stores was the place we went to for most of our needs. We would save our pocket monies, put them together so that we could buy meat pies, burger and the rest just to feel good.

“But it really hurts to find out that places like that are no more. Even though this place (ICM) looks beautiful, I don’t know if I can compare it to the feeling Kingsway Stores left in us each time we visited back then,” she said, staring the reporter in the eyes to see if he really understood how she felt at that moment.

Established in 1948, Kingsway Stores was the first and largest departmental store and modern retail shop in Nigeria, rapidly expanding to other parts of the country as time wore on. Stocking a mixture of general consumer goods, fabrics and items appealing to a wide section of the populace, Kingsway became the toast of many across the country especially with the introduction of its quick service restaurants known as Kingsway Rendezvous. Owned by the United African Company, it was the place to be for fun seekers and those interested in bargain buys.

UTC

“There was hardly anything you wanted that Kingsway didn’t have,” Okonkwo, who came in company with her son and family, cut in sharply. “The outlets were everywhere and the items they stocked were original, you had no doubt about their quality. Festive periods and special occasions like Independence Day celebration were always colourful at the place. Children and adults, everyone always had a great time there. I really miss those days and wished Kingsway were still around,” she added before sipping from a can of a popular beverage drink.

In spite of the firm’s success and massive patronage from members of the public, things took a different turn around the mid 1980s when UAC began selling many of the store’s outlets to indigenous businessmen and women, who further diverted to other areas. According to findings by Saturday PUNCH, many Nigerian consumers with penchant for foreign-made goods began to shift loyalty to other similar department stores when the Structural Adjustment Programme of the time forced firms to source for stocks locally. Kingsway, which had about 13 modern department stores and supermarkets in major cities of the country and employing around 1,000 people at the time, soon abandoned the business, metamorphosing slowly into what is now known as UAC Foods. Though a thriving brand of its own, it has not been able to replace Kingsway Stores on the minds of many Nigerians.

Describing those days as truly memorable, Mr. Bidemi Faribigbe, a civil servant, told Saturday PUNCH that he remembered running away from class with his friends to visit and walk around Kingsway Stores outlet close to where they lived at the time.

According to him, the entire place was always decorated with Nigeria’s national colours each time it was October 1 – the anniversary of the country’s independence from British colonial rule.

“My friends and I got a lot of beatings from our school teachers for sneaking out to play around Kingsway,” the 62-year-old recalled with nostalgia. “But the funny thing was that the same people who whipped us for going to Kingsway were also always there most of the time, including during school hours.

“It was the fun place for most of us at the time. I remember that it was there that I first saw Father Christmas. My father never missed the chance to take us there on such occasions including during Independence Day celebration. Those were indeed special days for people like us,” he said.

Like Kingsway, Leventis Stores is another popular name and brand many Nigerians born before and shortly after the country’s independence cannot forget in a hurry. Established in 1937 by Cypriot business merchant, Anastasios George Leventis, the new firm, with its wide array of consumer goods, expanded steadily, becoming one of the biggest of its kind in West Africa by 1978 when its founder passed on. Following the successes enjoyed over this period, the group branched to other sectors of the economy, introducing Leventis Motors Limited and Leventis Technical Limited soon afterwards. Though the company is still very vibrant in the foods sector, it rarely commands the type of patronage it was once known for these days.

“There was hardly anything we wanted that we couldn’t find at Leventis Stores as kids,” Habiba Mohammed, a retired nurse, told Saturday PUNCH. “My father, who was a police officer at the time around the Apapa area where we lived, would always take us there every weekend to shop and play around. We were there all the time, including every October 1 where the atmosphere was specially charged. Life was easy then, not now that there is chaos and hardship everywhere,” she said.

Also in the list of department stores is UTC Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Union Trading Company, Basel, Switzerland, and Domino Stores respectively. Both companies, established in 1932 and 1964 respectively, provided a great opportunity for many citizens to have a taste of the good life, expanding rapidly to other parts of the country in the process. However, different economic policies adopted by successive administrations in Nigeria affected these brands in no small measure, hampering their growth and grip on market share.

“The disappearance of the urban middle class affected many of the super stores so much that they began to suffocate under a very harsh business climate until their gradual demise.

“Also, the handing over of some of these firms to local business people who could barely handle a small shop contributed to the collapse of this sector at the time. For many of us, those places were where we looked up to visiting during important celebrations as October 1. Even though we now have modern stores and shopping malls all across the country, the feeling the likes of Kingsway, UTC and Leventis brought was really special. They were part of the peoples’ lives in those periods,” Mr. Kabiru Adedeji, a civil servant, said.

Away from departmental stores, which stocked and attracted dozens of Nigerians with their wide variety of consumer products, especially food items and other day-to-day goods, one popular brand of that era that can easily not be forgotten by many citizens is Bata – a renowned footwear manufacturer operating at the Ojota-end of the Ikorodu Road, one of the longest inner-city expressways in the country. Established in 1932 as a trading company called British Bata Shoe Company Limited before transforming into a manufacturing outfit in 1964, Bata left quite an impression on the minds of many, especially children of primary and secondary school age, who ‘marched’ to classes in the firm’s famous Cortina sandals. Rugged, exquisite and unique, the Cortina reigned supreme during the period, commanding patronage from far and wide.

“Even if you bought us the latest designers shoes from London or the United States, if it was not the Cortina, my siblings and I weren’t going to wear them to school, not for once,” Mrs. Temitope Oyelowo, a retired school teacher, told Saturday PUNCH. “I don’t know if it was prestige or just childhood exuberance, a lot of kids at the time wanted Cortina more than any other thing. The product made the Bata brand very popular for many of us. Almost each of my children also had a pair of Cortina. But these days when I pass around the place, I can’t even tell what they do there anymore. Bata is a brand Nigeria shouldn’t have allowed to die,” she said.

Until 1998 when it was re-named Footwear and Accessories Manufacturing and Distribution PLC, the company was one of the most popular brands in the country, fighting off competition and taking the lead in market share. According to industry watchers, things fell apart for the firm in 1997 when Bata Overseas Trading Company left after a disagreement with some of the indigenous directors. Efforts to revive the ailing fortunes of the company have not particularly hit the right note. More than in reality, Bata remains only on the minds of Nigerians, who experienced it.

“If Bata had been sustained and maintained, it might have very well become one of the biggest shoe-manufacturing companies in the world today. Immediately the company went under, things were no longer the same for the leather industry in Nigeria. It is indeed a sad story for those of us who were around at the time,” Frank Peterside, a former contractor with the company, told Saturday PUNCH.

Another very popular brand among Nigerians before and after the independence era was Oluwa Glass Plc. Tucked in the heart of Ilajeland – Igbokoda, Ondo State, the glass manufacturing company was the thrill for locals and even people from other parts of the South West. During special occasions like Independence Day celebration, it was the destination many young students and adults, who had heard so much about the place wanted to see. Apart from sourcing raw materials locally and meeting national and regional demand regularly, the place provided jobs for hundreds of people. For the Ondo State Government, it was a major source of internal revenue generation. But like many indigenous firms of the time, Oluwa Glass Plc is no more.

“Igbokoda and in fact other parts of Ilajeland witnessed a lot of economic growth throughout the time Oluwa Glass existed,” Bayo Jemirokun, a local fisherman, told our correspondent during a telephone conversation earlier in the week. “People came from all parts of the country to either do business or just see what the place looked like. This created an avenue for other smaller businesses to thrive.

“But rather than developing the industry further and make it stronger, the place was starved of needed support by successive administrations in the state. What was a pride to us at independence is nothing to write home about today. It saddens our hearts each time many of us from this area think about this,” he said.

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